School of Pharmacy News Archive

VPhA Midyear offers “Homework for a Healthy Heart”

To see more photos from the 2011 VPhA Midyear Meeting, visit our Facebook page.

Nearly 150 people attended Virginia Pharmacists Association’s annual Midyear Meeting Feb. 19-20 at Hotel Roanoke and Conference Center. Ten continuing-education sessions centered on the theme “Homework for a Healthy Heart.”

Several VCU School of Pharmacy faculty and many alumni were involved. Al Schalow (B.S. ’61) welcomed participants to the annual lunch and 30th Annual Rooke Lecture. Schalow is president of the VPhA Foundation board of trustees. The Rooke Lecture, “The Changing Health Care Landscape and Its Impact on Independent Pharmacy,” was delivered by Joe Harmison, former president of the National Community Pharmacists Association and the Texas Pharmacy Association. The Rooke lecture was named in honor of SOP alumnus R. Reginald Rooke (B.S. ’21).

Harmison said that despite being in danger of “being pushed off the playing field” by entities such as retail and mail-order pharmacy, the future for independent pharmacy is bright. But, he added, “Imaginative and bold initiatives are needed to preserve and sustain our practice. … The winners will be those who provide significant value to the system and provide more for less.

“We must never give up on the product,” he said, “we must build a platform. … The choice is ours – do what we are doing now or reshape the future of pharmacy.” Harmison described independent pharmacy as a $93 billion industry that provides more than 315,000 jobs and dispenses nearly 1.5 billion prescriptions annually.

Discussing and promoting the VPhA Foundation’s Capital Campaign, “Home for Life for Virginia’s Pharmacists,” were John Hasty (B.S. ’56), Johnny Moore (B.S. ’71) and Phylliss Moret, the school’s assistant dean for experiential education. Moret, co-chairwoman of the capital campaign, noted that VPhA’s goal is to raise $300,000 for its building mortgage and a reserve fund for future pharmacists by next year. (One-third of that amount had been raised as of the end of February.)

“We plan to burn [the mortgage] at the annual meeting!” she said, holding up a shiny shovel that had been used during a VPhA open house and ceremony in 1975.

Continuing-education sessions included “Guidelines for Secondary Stroke Prevention” by SOP professor Gretchen Brophy. She discussed treatable vascular factors for stroke and modifiable behavior risk factors for prevention of recurrent stroke or TIA (transient ischemic attack). Stroke, she pointed out, is the third leading cause of death and the leading cause of adult neurological disability. In the United States, a stroke occurs every 40 seconds.

“Secondary prevention is very, very important,” Brophy said. “We as pharmacists are some of the first people patients come to. We can be advocates.” Pharmacists, she said, can help identify symptoms and get patients to the doctor or hospital for treatment.

Among the SOP alumni attending the VPhA Midyear Meeting was Pat Resto (B.S. ’84), who will receive the school’s Distinguished Pharmacy Alumni Award during Reunion Weekend on the MCV Campus.

A School of Pharmacy Alumni and Friends Dessert Reception attracted alumni, faculty, staff and students. Cindy Warriner (B.S.’86), 2010-11 VPhA president, said, “This dessert reception has become quite a tradition!” She went on to discuss the importance of pharmacy as an integral part of health-care reform. “This is an important time in pharmacy.”

In talking about an individual’s health care, she added, it’s important to remember that it takes individual relationships such as the pharmacist-patient connection.

SOP Dean Victor Yanchick invited alumni to visit campus and offered updates on several projects in progress, including a Heritage Room and sterile compounding lab. He thanked alumni for their various contributions to the school and to “our bright and energetic student pharmacists. They’re going to be the leaders; they’re the future of the profession.”

Categories archive